I've read a lot of insanity from the National Catholic Reporter but this one written by "Jamie Mason", published on Good Friday, really takes the first prize blue ribbon.
I’ve had more than one Catholic who grew up either before or on the cusp of Vatican II tell me horror stories of how they were taught that Jesus died because of their sins.
This was a particularly heavy-handed way for priests and nuns to lay an even thicker coat of guilt on impressionable Catholic school children. Because they were sinners, Jesus had to suffer and die to redeem them. It was one rendering of the traditional theological interpretations of the crucifixion -- that Jesus had to die to fulfill the Scriptures and that his death atoned for the sins of the world...
Jesus’ passion and death is a result of deeply-human intolerance, jealousy, resentment, hatred, and, most of all, fear.
Jesus’ death may have been the will of God, but it was also the will of both powerful people and ordinary people who preferred unquestioning loyalty to rigid, oppressive political and religious regimes to the profound challenges of God incarnate...
Though some thought experiencing holiness meant being acceptable in the eyes of religious authorities, Jesus said it meant being constantly judged and ostracized by those in religious power. Though many were told that experiencing God meant obeying laws and practicing empty rituals, Jesus told them that encountering God happens when we feed those who hunger, welcome the estranged, shelter the vulnerable, and visit the lonely.
Get it?
Christ did not die to leave us the Institution of our Salvation, His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and witness how far we go to be obedient to it, His Passion and Crucifixion is a story about the oppressive intolerance to sin by political and religious regimes. On Holy Thursday, we are not celebrating the institution of the Sacrament of Holy Communion and Holy Orders, these 'rituals' are 'empty'.
She goes on to make a fool out of those, earlier this week, who were disenfranchising the deep theological problems and spiritual abuse from turning Easter Sunday into a pagan earth day celebration:
It follows, then, that whenever God’s creation -- whether it be human lives or the ecosystems of the earth -- is unjustly harmed, God is harmed.
Whenever we harm ourselves or deny our own goodness, we wound God. Whenever we allow religious institutions to rob us of our dignity as unconditionally beloved children of God, God is put into a prison and degraded. Whenever we deny love or compassion to someone in need, or allow injustice to prosper, we deny God.
Whenever a creation of God suffers at the hands of greed, or the abuse of power, or hatred or fear, God is abused. Whenever a creation is killed, whether through our continued ravaging of the earth.... God is crucified.
An earth day "follows" the emptying of the worth of the Sacraments. An earth day celebration in place of our Triduum is bound to the school of thought that our 'rituals' and Sacraments are meaningless.
When Christ asked Simon whether he loved Him, and asked him to feed his sheep, all He meant was handing out gift certificates to Burger King.
This crap is real and it is out there. It isn't Catholic. It is a schism.
If you are in a parish that is celebrating the earth, encouraging the flock to take pride on your sins, you and your children are being robbed. The Catholics encouraging you to stay in these schismatic parishes and schools have fled from them themselves.
Sometimes, in fact most times, the devil is subtle.
You are hungry, what's the harm in eating this bread.
The apple is sweet, delicious.
He loves you and everyone is doing it, God was crucified so you could enjoy it without guilt.
It isn't a baby, you will not be provided the money to feed him, it's bad timing.
As a parent, anytime something harmful has been said or done in front of my children, I spoke up to correct it. Even if it was minor.
The misfeasance of the local Bishop who has jurisdiction over this schismatic rag is truly breathtaking. He has the canonical power to strip them of the right to use the word 'Catholic', but instead, he permits the flock get hoodwinked.
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.
